Combined chamber wall and heat exchanger
AssigneeHieta Technologies Limited
InventorDrummond Watson Hislop
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An apparatus having a wall configured to serve as at least part of a chamber for containing a charge fluid is provided. The wall includes a heat exchanger portion integrally formed with the wall. The heat exchanger portion includes an array of conduits passing therethrough and providing fluid communication with outside of the heat exchange portion. The heat exchange portion is configured to contribute strength to the wall to provide containment of the charge fluid.
Claims2
A method of manufacturing a turbine comprising a compressor or an expander, the compressor or the expander including a casing and a rotor disposed to rotate within the casing, said method comprising the steps of:
- providing a plurality of successive layers of a material to be melted;
- energy beam melting predetermined regions of each layer in accordance with a predetermined design to fuse said layer with material of preceding layer so as to form a solid structure in which melted portions of each layer fuse with melted portions of a preceding layer;
- wherein
- said step of said energy beam melting integrally forms a wall of said casing and a heat exchanger portion, said heat exchanger portion having an array of conduits passing therethrough and providing fluid communication with outside of said heat exchanger portion of said wall,
- wherein a cross-sectional area of the casing at an inlet of the compressor or the expander is different than a cross-sectional area of the casing at an outlet of the compressor or the expander, and wherein the heat exchanger portion extends around the rotor together with the casing.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.